Hello everyone! I’m Matthew, the programmer on FTL, and I just wanted to give you a quick overview of what to expect from the Beta. First off, thank you once again for your support through the Kickstarter. We’ve been pouring our lives into this game for the past year and a half and it’s exciting to start the Beta with you. We hope your enthusiasm for the demo and videos carries over to the full game. The Steam Keys for accessing the Beta will be sent out within 48 hours!
FTL at this point is very close to what we consider “Feature Complete.” The purpose of this closed beta is to tune the game, squash bugs, and to make it generally more polished. Remember that this is still an unfinished product and there are bound to be problems.
During the Beta I hope to release new builds weekly, but that’s probably overly optimistic and so you should count on every other week updates as more likely. Since there will be changes to the game in the coming months, don’t burn yourself out in the first week. You’ll ruin it for yourself!
For those excited about giving us feedback, sign up for an account here: www.getsatisfaction.com/ftlgame All of the bug reporting, suggestions, etc. will go through that system. Some quick pointers if you intend to give bug reports (and we hope you do :) )
Feel free to record videos of the Beta and show it off to people! Monetizing these videos with ads through YouTube is fine as well, just don’t give the game to people. However, since it'll be a few months until everyone else will get access to the beta, we would greatly appreciate it if you do not show hidden/locked content or anything from the final sector. If you decide to anyway, please mark it with SPOILER warnings. It would be a shame for people who did not take part in the beta to have their experience diluted due to an overabundance of spoilers.
Please keep in mind the current state of the game when making suggestions. Tuning (game difficulty, weapon balance, etc.) is the most realistic thing to discuss and change. After that, content that already uses the same system could be considered.. for example:
While it’s possible that some things could be added before the official release, it’s more likely that we’ll take your suggestions (and complaints) as a springboard for when we begin working on post-release content. Here are some examples of ideas that will not be able to make it into the game. Mostly these additions describe a very different game than FTL and so are unlikely to even make it into expansions.
If you have read this far, thank you for bearing with me. That should cover all the important points. You have any other questions, don’t hesitate to email us and ask. Feel free to join our forums at www.ftlgame.com/forum and discuss the game. Once again, hope you enjoy FTL!